A New IDC: Directions 2026, IDC Quanta™, and What It Means for AR and the Analyst Ecosystem
AR Intelligence: Live | Conversations | April 2026 · Replay · Transcript · Chat Log
April 16, 2026 · AR Intelligence: Live #8
AR Intelligence: Snapshot
The April 16 Conversations session featured Gerry Van Zandt, long-time AR pro, as a guest and practitioner voice reflecting on IDC Directions 2026. The announcements at Directions — led by IDC Quanta — were the most visible moment in a multi-year reinvention that also includes the December 2025 AWS Quick Research partnership, Lorenzo Larini taking over as CEO in February, and a targeted round of layoffs aligned to a new operating model. This is a new IDC: less market-research house, more decision infrastructure; less “come to us,” more “we come to you”; less vendor-centric, more end-user ambitious. The conversation covered what that means for IDC, for Gartner and Forrester, and — most importantly — for AR.
IDC didn’t just announce IDC Quanta™. It declared that analyst firms are becoming decision infrastructure — and that changes what AR is optimizing for.
Replay: Available on Zoom.
Passcode: 74px%*IA
Paid members (aka subscribers to AR Intelligence Substack): the full cleaned transcript and chat log are below. The chat is worth reading on its own — attendees pushed back, raised pricing and access questions, and surfaced field signal from both vendor-side AR leaders and an IDC end-user sales executive.
Webinar held April 16, 2026
Host: Carter Lusher (LinkedIn)
Guest: Gerry Van Zandt (LinkedIn), Senior Director, Analyst Relations, Alteryx
Dig Deeper
Full Transcript — A New IDC: From Boring to Unignorable
Gerry Van Zandt’s unfiltered take on whether IDC can finally crack the end-user market after 35 years of trying — what “decision infrastructure” actually means for AR, why the era of dot-chasing is over, and how AI becomes a new AR constituent.
Chat Log — The Real Debate
Attendees pushed back hard on IDC’s end-user credibility, pricing risks, and whether Quanta is a “shiny tool, not base content”. Includes field signal from an IDC end-user sales exec and AR teams already testing AskGartner limits.
Action Items — What to Do Next
Practical steps for AR teams: audit your AI visibility, build AI-ready content, rethink analyst engagement beyond “dot chasing,” and track IDC’s practitioner-analyst hires.
Slides: No formal slide deck for this session. Related research notes available upon request — inquiry@LusherAdvisory.com.
Analyst ecosystem research and analysis — same budget as Gartner, WSJ, or professional dues
AR Intelligence delivers weekly analysis of the analyst ecosystem — deeper insights, early signals, and strategic guidance you can act on immediately.
$8/month (cancel anytime), $80/year (save 17%), team plans available.
Bottom line: Professional subscription, not personal expense
